I’ll have a retooled story in the morning paper and posted online in the overnight cycle, too. That differs slightly, cutting out some of the news conference quotes that will be old by morning and adding some comments from my brief one-on-one talk with Gwozdecky after the news conference.

Most significantly, Gwozdecky talked a little more about what he thought of the coaching staff’s work in this, his final season.

Bill McCartney, former football coach of the University of Colorado Buffaloes, who led the team to a 1990 National championship, pictured in this 2010 file photo.

For the record, my commentary in the paper on Wednesday was written and filed before Bill McCartney started making the media rounds with his open letter and other statements on Tuesday, and we inserted a brief reference to it. I tried to address the issues involved with some nuance, and I’ve noticed a few and heard from a few who didn’t take the time to try and digest it as an attempt at thoughtful comment and allowing others to speak up — most notably Floyd Keith and Fitz Hill — and at least raise questions. That’s where today’s trends — pick out an extreme and scream, or reduce everything to either/or — discourage reasonable discourse.

I made it clear I despise The Race Card when lamely and automatically summoned, and that’s not going to change. I’ve even touched on the subject in a book, saying I believe we’re past the point of keeping score of fairness with a calculator, but should he relying on fairness and what’s right, plus instinctive diversity rather than mandated and categorization.

I bring that up because I think those modern standards come into play when comparing Bill McCartney’s and Jon Embree’s tenures at CU.

TUCSON — “College GameDay” is on a ship in San Diego in honor of Veterans Day, not because there aren’t top-notch games Saturday. The BCS race is heating up with four unbeatens heading toward the finish line. Here are the three games I want to watch. (Colorado-Arizona is not one of them. It’s my job.)

No. 3 Kansas State (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) at Texas Christian (6-3, 3-3), 5 p.m.
Loveland High-product Collin Klein is coming off a concussion and I want to see his effectiveness. All that’s on the line is a national title shot and the Heisman Trophy. His backup is Daniels Sams, a lightly recruited redshirt freshman from Slidell, La., who has thrown all of eight passes this year. If Klein gets dinged early and can’t go, don’t rule out all hope for Kansas State. It leads the country in turnover margin and is second in the Big 12 in scoring defense. Meanwhile, this isn’t the same TCU defense as in the past. In the last three games it has given up 56, 36 and 38 points.

Arizona State (5-4, 3-3 Pac-12) at No. 21 USC (6-3, 4-3 Pac-12), 1:30 p.m.
Arizona State has the same kind of spread offense that gave USC fits in giving up 39 points at Arizona and 62 to Oregon. USC’s defense is getting torched, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is getting more heat in L.A. than Mike Brown and Deflategate has provided one more distraction. Coach Lane Kiffin is denying any knowledge about the team manager who deflated footballs to help the receivers’ grip against Oregon but the kid got axed anyway. Kiffin is reportedly coaching for his job. With a trip to No. 17 UCLA next week and a visit from No. 4 Notre Dame in the regular season finale, holding serve against ASU, a nine-point underdog, is imperative for USC and Kiffin.

No. 15 Texas A&M (7-2, 4-2 SEC) at No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 6-0 SEC)
I want to see how Alabama’s superb defense does against Texas A&M’s fleet quarterback, Johnny Manziel. He has transformed the Aggies with his feet and arm, similar to how freshman Marcus Mariota has lifted Oregon into the national title picture again. Alabama’s D has put up scary numbers: No. 1 in scoring defense (9.11 points per game) and No. 2 in total defense (228.9 yards per game) and rushing defense (66.3 ypg). But Alabama has only played one team in the Top 25, and the defense looked vulnerable against LSU last week. If Manziel can put up points on Alabama, it’ll show the Crimson Tide may face a pretty big challenge down the road.

The big discussion in college football this week is which of the three teams directly behind Alabama in the BCS rankings will wind up No. 2 if they all stay undefeated. It’s a wasted argument. It’s not going to happen.

It rarely does. Due to pure blind luck or the BCS gods above, unbeatens start dropping off in November. At this exact Week 10 point of last season, six teams were unbeaten. One, LSU, was unbeaten at the end of the regular season.

In 2010, five were unbeaten in Week 10. In the end, only Auburn, Oregon and TCU remained.

In 2009, seven were unbeaten and only Alabama, Texas and Boise State were there in the end.

In 2008, it was eight with Utah the lone unbeaten left standing.

In 2007, it was five with zero — zip, none, not even one — left at the end of the regular season.

ESPN reported that the odds of the top four remaining unbeaten is under 3 percent. But if that happens, Oregon should be No. 2. It’s No. 2 in both polls and will move up in the computers if it beats USC, possibly twice, and at Oregon State.

I had friends in college who got in the kind of trouble Casey Pachall has been in but they weren’t fifth in the nation in pass efficiency.

Thursday’s suspension of Texas Christian’s junior quarterback throws the Big 12 race for a loop, although it may have saved Pachall’s life. Coach Gary Patterson suspended Pachall after a drunk driving arrest early Thursday morning, less than a year after a positive drug test.

Pachall lives with ex-TCU linebacker Tanner Brock, who was one of the Horned Frogs arrested in a campus-wide drug bust in February. At the time Pachall admitted drug use to police.

New Colorado football commitment Marcus Loud can ask CU defensive line coach Kanavis McGhee if the Buffs assistant remembers their high school fight song.

Loud, a 6-foot-4, 237-pound defensive end, is a senior at Houston’s Wheatley High — the alma mater of McGhee. Loud visited CU this past weekend and, according to Rivals.com, extended a commitment to the Buffs.

In no surprise, McGhee, according to the recruiting-based website, was CU’s primary recruiter for Loud.

This year’s Heisman Trophy race seemed like a hot potato with Matt Barkley, then Montee Ball, then Landry Jones throwing it away, leaving it as wide open as I’ve ever seen.

It’s wide open no more.

Geno Smith went Pop Warner on Baylor Saturday. The numbers are too boggling to comprehend: 45-of-51 for 656 yards and eight touchdowns with no interceptions. It’s not like West Virginia poured it on. It only won, 70-63.

I wanted to blame Baylor’s defense. But it returned its top five defensive backs from last year’s 10-3 team. Obviously something’s missing. The Bears narrowly escaped Louisiana-Monroe the week before, 47-42. But I couldn’t. Watching Smith in the second half, he was absolutely pinpoint perfect.

Now he’s having a season for the ages. After wins over Marshall, James Madison, Maryland and Baylor, Smith is an astounding 141-of-169 (.834) for 1,728 yards with 20 TDs and, get this, ZERO interceptions. No other candidate is even close.

Out from the gray cloud that was the pitiful Big East, Smith will be able to impress more against a tougher Big 12 schedule. The Mountaineers visit No. 12 Texas next Saturday then travel to Texas Tech before hosting seventh-ranked Kansas State and No. 15 TCU before visiting Oklahoma State.

If Smith puts up half these numbers and keeps the No. 9 Mountaineers in the top 10, he’ll lock up the Heisman by mid-November.

FORT COLLINS – Personnel-wise, there may be nothing Colorado State coach Jim McElwain loves more than a winner at the quarterback position.

In the last two weeks, he’s faced teams with seasoned veterans at quarterback, raved about them prior to the games, and – unfortunately for him – had to say ‘I told you so’ after those players carved up the Rams secondary.

But here’s the kicker – McElwain thinks he’s got one of his own.

Garrett Grayson, a sophomore, is off to a satisfactory start: 51-of-87 (58.6 percent) for 641 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. In last weekend’s loss at San Jose State, he flashed the deft feet coaches hope to better utilize as the season goes on, rushing for a net 40 yards (sack yards are taken from a QB’s rushing total) and a touchdown. In fact, his touchdown is the only rushing touchdown CSU has this season.

“He probably didn’t play as technically well (against San Jose State) as he will in the future,” McElwain said. “But his development…I think in time he’s going to be a quality quarterback and a guy that is going to do some really good things. At the same time, you need to go through some growing pains. He’s done a pretty good job of taking care of the ball, I know we’ve had a couple of interceptions that are not things that we accept. But with that, I do believe that his development, he’s going to be a very quality quarterback.”

McElwain’s praise is music to Grayson’s ears.

“Hearing him say that, that’s a confidence-builder,” Grayson said. “But I feel like I have a long ways to go. There’s still some plays I still don’t know exactly where everyone is going to be. We’re installing plays every week for the defenses we’re going to see. By the end of the weeks I usually feel like I have them down pretty well, but there’s still sometimes I’m still wondering in the back of my mind where someone is going to be, and things like that. I think it will take a while to get it all together. Next season, I should have everything down to a ‘T,’ be able to coach people. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

After all, Saturday’s game against Utah State will only be his seventh start as a college quarterback.

“I hope (fans) are not expecting the world of me, I do only have a few starts under my belt,” Grayson said. “But I do have high expectations for myself. I remember going into my first start last year at TCU; I said I wanted to be perfect, and that’s always my expectation going into games, trying to be perfect and not let the team down.”

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FORT COLLINS – Of all of the things sophomore Garrett Grayson may not be sure of, going into his first game as Colorado State’s starter at quarterback, there’s one thing he is sure of.

He’ll be nervous for five minutes prior to kickoff.

Then, it’s all good.

“I was always the guy that got nervous about five minutes before the game, and then it was gone,” Grayson said. “I was never nervous during the week or anything like that. I can’t say I’m nervous yet, but before the game I betcha I will about five minutes and then it will be gone once we get rolling.”

Helping his cause is the fact that Saturday’s game, the Rocky Mountain Showdown against CU, isn’t his first go around. In fact, there’s pretty much nothing Colorado’s defense can show him to a higher degree than he experienced in the first start of his college career – last season at TCU, which annually boasts one of the nation’s top defenses.

“Last year playing against a team like TCU it helped my confidence, knowing what they’ve done the last 10, 15 years and the players that they’ve had come out of there,” said Grayson, who has three starts under his belt. “That helped my confidence and I think if I didn’t play against those guys in the last four games like I did my nerves would be out of the roof right now. I’m just ready to go, ready to start completing some balls against somebody else.”

His coach, Jim McElwain, is ready for Grayson to complete passes against other competition, too. First up on the list are the Buffs, a team Grayson did not face as a freshman last year. Though McElwain is confident in what Grayson should be able to accomplish, he still wants to get the young quarterback “some layups” to get him in the rhythm of the game.

“You don’t ask him to drop back the first five times and throw bombs,” McElwain said.

LAS VEGAS – Suddenly, Jim McElwain finds himself on the other side of the playoff fence.

At Alabama the door was always open. All the Crimson Tide needed to do was play the normal schedule – get through it – and a shot at a national title was almost always promised.

Now he’s head coach at Colorado State in a conference where the door to a BCS bowl, much less a national title, is always mostly shut. Teams in the Mountain West are required to kick it in.

It appears to be much of the same even starting in 2014, when college football moves into a four-team playoff system.

Only, McElwain doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

“Let’s look at Colorado State, a top 25 team when Sonny (Lubick) was here,” McElwain said. “I was at Louisville when we went 11-1 and were a top 15 team. You look at what Fresno did with Pat Hill there – those guys went out and beat everyone that they played. So there’s a lot of those stories. I say this: Why can’t any of us be that next one?”

The Mountain West has placed team in BCS games before – TCU, Boise State and Utah have all played in the games. But none, undefeated or not, got a shot to play in the national title game. Still, McElwain doesn’t see access into the new four-team playoff format to be an impossible mission for his team or any other deserving squad in the conference.

“Absolutely,” he said, smiling. “Anytime you can break down the barriers of those guys, and I was just in that league that didn’t want anybody (the SEC) – ‘let us have it all.’ But I think once those barriers are broken down, and there will be a dissolution of another league here and there, the landscape of college football is going to change dramatically, even in as short as the next four years.”

Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson was a little more tempered in his comments.

“We don’t know if there is access for the former non-(automatic qualifiers) or not,” Thompson said. “Right now in the BCS rules there are access points guaranteed. So those are to be determined.

“I can say this: In the 13-year history of the Mountain West, every undefeated team has played in a BCS bowl game. So the opportunity is there.”

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

Colorado State's Pierce Hornung passes the ball while lying on the court against Jewuan Long of Murray State during the second round of the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on March 15, 2012 in Louisville, Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The time is now. All of Colorado State’s hard work has led to this – finally getting on the court in the NCAA Tournament. The 11th-seeded Rams play the tournament’s first game this morning, against sixth-seeded Murray State.

So how do the Rams win? Like this:

Rebound, rebound, rebound: If there is one area that can be a clear advantage in the Rams’ favor, it’s this one. Murray State has shown clear deficiencies in rebounding this season, and that can be a killer in a tournament scenario in two ways: A) allowing extra possessions for opponents on the offensive glass; B) being limited to fewer attempts on your own offensive possessions.

The Racers have allowed an astounding 11.7 offensive rebounds per game this season. If CSU gets at least 11 extra possessions because of offensive rebounds, this will be a much easier game for it to win. And they have the player to help get that done in forward Pierce Hornung.

The biggest storyline coming into the season was, well, CSU wasn’t very big. Height was largely absent from the roster, and that, in basketball, is a very sizeable concern.

Unless you shoot the lights out.

At the end of the day, flex offenses, pin down screens, etc. don’t matter if you can’t make the shot. It’s the most basic part of the game and the Rams earned a PhD in shooting this year.

Last season, CSU shot 46.7 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from the 3-point line and 69.2 percent from the free throw line. This season, those numbers jumped to 47.6 from the field, 40.5 from the 3-point line and 76.9 percent from the free throw line. The Rams led the Mountain West in all three categories and ranked sixth in the nation in free throw and 3-point percentage, and 25th in overall field goal percentage.

Tough schedule gets unexpected boosts

It’s easy to identify a tough schedule when Duke and San Diego State and Northern Iowa and New Mexico are on all it. But Colorado State got help in other places not easily identified as opportunities when the schedule was being broken down at the beginning of the season.

-Montana won the Big Sky regular season and conference tournament titles.
-Southern Mississippi finished with 25 wins, second to Memphis in Conference USA.
-Denver finished second in the Sun Belt.

And though there is a thorough hate-hate relationship with Colorado, when the Bufflaoes won the Pac-12 conference tournament it added to the Rams’ resume. Had the Buffs not won, they’d be in the NIT. Now, CSU had a victory over another conference tournament champion to add to a pile of impressive victories all season long.

Walk-on steps up

The rise of senior guard Kaipo Sabas is arguably the best story on the team. The story goes like this: He goes to Miles in the offseason and says he’s willing to put in the work to earn more playing time. Miles doesn’t necessarily believe him. Sabas makes him a believer, knocking down shot after shot when it counts – in games. Then, the walk-on becomes a regular part of the rotation and earns a scholarship for the second semester. Movie-script stuff.

More importantly, Sabas, who totes a team-leading 45 percent shooting percentage from the 3-point line, gave CSU another legit shooter from distance. For a team that likes to relentlessly attack the basket, Sabas’ sharpshooting from deep allows the Rams to space the court even further, opening up more driving lanes, giving a team with a size deficit on most nights a chance to have an advantage on the offensive end.

Winning the close ones

In any season there will be at least a handful of close games. Good teams find a way to win them. Colorado State was 4-2 in games decided by five points or less this season. Add in a six-point win in double overtime over TCU on Jan. 14 and it’s 5-2. For the most part, when the moments were most pressurized, CSU came through with flying colors.

Winning at home

The first step to overall success is taking care of home. And at no other point during Tim Miles’ tenure did his team do a better job of that than this season. In his first four years, Colorado State was 35-29 (.546) at Moby Arena, a winning record, but by no means dominant.

This year, however, that changed. Colorado State found the formula, winning 14 of its 15 home games. The only loss was to Southern Mississippi – an NCAA Tournament team. The interesting part is pretty much no one can tell you definitively why they were so good in the Green Fortress. But after their last home game of the season Pierce Hornung gave it a shot.

“It’s the fans,” Hornung said. “The fans have done a tremendous job of coming out. They do a great job of making Moby crazy.”

CSU’s home records under Miles

2011-12: 14-1
2010-11: 9-5
2009-10: 13-4
2008-09: 8-10
2007-08: 5-10

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LAS VEGAS – Colorado State forward Greg Smith said despite the appearance of things, he’s not completely ruling himself out of Friday’s MW Tournament semifinal against top-seeded San Diego State.

He missed CSU’s opening-round game against TCU with a sprained right ankle suffered in practice on Wednesday at Cox Pavilion.

“If I can do the things on it that I need to do, I’ll try to play,” said Smith, CSU’s third-leading scorer (9.7 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (5.7 rpg). “It’s not about pain, it’s about function. I’m not worried about pain. I need to be able to stop, cut like I want it to, or at least good enough to.”

CSU head coach Tim Miles wasn’t as optimistic. Asked if he thought Smith might have a chance to play, he said, “We’ll see. I think he’d be ready next week. I’m not sure about this weekend. Those seven that played (against TCU) were really rough, so ride ‘em out.”

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LAS VEGAS – Three games in three days is a grind, even on the healthiest bodies. Colorado State senior Will Bell, however, doesn’t have the luxury of a fully healthy start.

Bell has dealt with a chronic knee injury all season long, following an off-season procedure to repair a torn meniscus. He’s only missed one game, but has been limited in a number of others. Should CSU advance he’ll have to find ways to stay effective and keep himself on the court.

Coming into today’s game against TCU, he said “I’m feeling fine. That couple of days off kind of helped me a little bit. I feel good, ready to go”

Otherwise, he plans on keeping a positive outlook.

“I’m not trying to focus on (the knee) right now, just trying to get through it day-by-day,” he said. “So, I think I’ll be fine just as long as I keep a good mindset, positive and just try to work through it.”

Smith will not play – CSU forward Greg Smith suffered a sprained ankle in practice on Wednesday and will not play. He donned a boot on the sprained right ankle. It is a big blow to an already-shorthanded CSU squad. Smith is the team’s third-leading scorer (9.7 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (5.7 rpg).

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LAS VEGAS – Arguably, no team has a tougher first-round challenge here at the Mountain West conference tournament than Air Force.

The Falcons, seeded seventh, face second-seeded New Mexico (7:05 p.m. Thursday), which tied for the conference title. It is a tall task for newly-installed head coach Dave Pilipovich.

But he has a plan.

“New Mexico is really good,” he said today. “They propose a lot of challenges for us. But we’re excited about it. We’re going to tweak a few things from what we did in the first two games, obviously. Try to maybe get them off-kilter a little bit, take them out of their rhythm early, give us an advantage to get off to a better start, and hopefully that will work.”

LAS VEGAS – If TCU’s players take any cues from their fiery coach, Jim Christian, Colorado State better come in the right state of mind in its Mountain West conference tournament opener against the Horned Frogs.

Here’s why: The Hoover Dam-sized chip Christian, and his team, are carrying into the first-round contest.

“TCU doesn’t get enough credit,” Christian said. “It’s almost fluky in some people’s eyes when we win a game – they must have played bad, the other team. No, TCU played pretty good basketball this year.”

He’s right. His team did.

Picked to finish seventh, the Horned Frogs instead finished fifth, going 7-7 in conference play with wins over UNLV and San Diego State along the way. In non-conference games they scored an upset over Virginia, one of the better teams in the ACC, which spent the majority of the season ranked in the Top 25.

If Colorado State is to win, the first thing its players must not take for granted is the intensity they’ll need from the opening tip. Motivated teams are dangerous ones, and the Horned Frogs firmly believe they’ve been disrespected all year long, and that they are not only here to win the tournament but to dispel a reputation of being a doormat along the way.

“We had our opportunities to compete for the championship in this league, just like a lot of teams when they look at their schedule,” said Christian, whose team comes into the game on a two-game losing streak. “We don’t feel like that we’re far off the pace with anybody – a possession here, a defensive stop here, a big shot here and we could have been one of the teams right there.”

It can be argued no two teams played closer contests against each other than Colorado State and Texas Christian did this season.

In their two games, the average margin of victory was five points. Colorado State won a double overtime thriller, 95-89 on Jan. 14. TCU returned the favor with a 75-71 win in Fort Worth on Feb. 11.

TCU nailed 24 3-pointers in the two games combined, evenly split at 12 apiece, something CSU coach Tim Miles knows his team can’t allow if it is to win and advance.

“By design we’re a team that tries to take away your inside play, your highest-percentage shots. But the value out-weighs that at times, and you can’t let a team get easy, quality looks,” Miles said. “TCU has been able to do that better than anybody against us all year. There’s obviously some schematic changes we’ve got to look at this week. If they go out there and make 10, 12 threes again, we’re probably not beating them.”

Speaking of defense, TCU played it…when it wanted to.

In a stretch of four wins in five games late in the season – except for an overtime shootout against UNLV – TCU played solid on the defensive end. That hasn’t always been the case. The Horned Frogs rank last in the Mountain West in points against, allowing 70.8 points per game. CSU, incidentally, is second-to-last allowing 68.3 points per contest.

According to Christian, his team’s defensive effort is his main concern. TCU was next-to-last in the conference in scoring margin (+1.1), however it was third in steals (7.0), second in forced turnovers (13.6) and second in turnover margin (+2.10).

“We have to be consistent on the defensive end of the floor,” he said. “The last game against San Diego State we played awful defense in the first half and very good defense in the second half. It got us back in the game. So, if we can become a consistent defensive team and shoot the ball well, we’ve proven we can beat anybody in the league. If we don’t, it’s going to be difficult for us.”

Colorado State’s two wins last week, including the team’s first conference road win, has it sitting in its best NCAA Tournament position of the season. And yet all anyone in the program talks about is winning, winning and winning some more. Players and coaches want nothing left to chance.

“We’ve just got to go into the Mountain West tournament with the mindset that we’ve got to win all three to get in, just keep winning,” said CSU guard Dorian Green after his team’s win at Air Force on Saturday. “Because if you keep winning, you can’t get hurt.”

The Rams (19-10 overall, 8-6 Mountain West), head to Las Vegas this week to play in the MWC tournament, which begins with a game against TCU on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. CSU is fourth-seeded in the tournament; TCU is the No. 5 seed.

The Colorado women’s golf team, coming off an impressive second-place finish at the All-State Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate in New Orleans, is ranked No. 20 in the first Golf World coaches poll of the spring season.

Previously, the Buffs were ranked No. 17 by Golfstat and No. 19 by Golfweek.

Two Buffs golfers are ranked among the top 100 in the nation by Golfweek: senior Emily Talley at No. 55 and sophomore Alex Stewart at No. 70. Stewart earned medalist honors at the Sugar Bowl tourney after firing a final-round 67.

Speaking Monday on the Mountain West Conference teleconference, Colorado State men’s basketball coach Tim Miles said “losing stinks” but the Rams have to shake off their weekend loss at TCU and prepare for two games this week.

The Rams begin the week tied with Wyoming for fourth place in the conference standings. Miles knows that CSU has a very small margin for error regarding its hopes at vying for an NCAA Tournament bid.

“There’s no doubt, you have to play in the top echelon (of the conference) to play in the postseason, and to play at the level (NCAA) you want to play at,” Miles said. “It’s critical.

“Losing the game against TCU was disappointing. I don’t think it was the end of the world. But at the same time it was one of those opportunities where we had opportunities to win.”

Colorado State, one of the MWC’s best shooting teams, had several empty possessions during the last five minutes against TCU.

CSU is winless in four conference road games this season.

“In a close game, you have to be flawless; we weren’t,” Miles said. “Bottom line: to make the NCAA Tournament, you have to win on the road. That made the TCU loss hurt. We have another opportunity Wednesday against Boise. We have to eliminate losing. We have to play good, sound defense, have to rebound well and take care of ball. We know what’s at stake.”

Miles was asked during the teleconference about the firing of Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds last Wednesday.

“It’s another reason I never want to be an athletic director,” Miles said. “I just can’t imagine having to make that decision and then pulling the trigger on that.

“Jeff Reynolds is a great coach and a better man. They were always very difficult to go against. For whatever reason that Hans felt like he had to make the move, that’s his prerogative.”

With the Mountain West Conference race having reached the midway point, the league’s teams get a bye before resuming conference play on Saturday.

Speaking Monday on the MWC teleconference, the coaches said they are impressed with the overall strength of the league.

“I think the depth of the league is really impressive,” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “There are no easy games wherever you go. The bottom teams that have been there in the past have elevated their play. The top teams are just as good, too.”

San Diego State coach Steve Fisher pointed out that although Boise State is winless in league play thus far, the Broncos have taken a lot of games to the wire.

“I’m sure (the Broncos) think they should be 3-4 or 4-3,” Fisher said. “The league is very good. There are coaches that know what they’re doing. There are very good players in every program.”

Colorado State resumes Saturday at TCU.

“It’s going to be quite a grind and it’s going to happen in a hurry,” CSU’s Miles said of the stretch run.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.